Svankmajer, one of cinema's most innovative animators, created this pessimistic comment of the possibility of dialogue ‚Äì both personal and political ‚Äì where the violence and aggression of humanity are brilliantly depicted in a series of Arcimboldian ‚Äòcollage' figures which devour and regurgitate each other.

Dimensions of Dialogue won the "Golden Bear" Berlin 1983, prize for best animated film in Melbourne 1983, and in 1990 was awarded a prize for "the best film of all the years of the festival" at Annecy International Animation Festival.

Jan Svankmajer
(1934) Czech Republic

Jan Svankmajer, one of the great Czech filmmakers, was born in Prague where he still lives. Trained at the Institute of Applied Arts he worked at the Black Theatre of Prague and the Laterna Magika before making his first puppet film in 1964. Although he made a number of significant films incorporating a variety of animation techniques and live action it wasn't until the 1980s that his work made an international impact. A committed Surrealist since joining the Prague group in 1970, his aggressive, dark and even sadistic work reached its apotheosis with the stunning 1982 film Dimensions Of Dialogue. In 1987 he completed his first feature film, Alice, a characteristically witty and subversive adaptation of Lewis Carroll, and follow this with a range of subversive and innovative features Faust(1994), Conspirators Of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (Otesanek) (2000) and his most recent film Lunacy (2005).